What is paganism in Russia. Paganism of Ancient Russia: the hierarchy of the gods, Slavic rituals and amulets. Veles pagan god of wealth
Dear Comrades.
Allow me to present scientific interpretations of the Theme of the Mystery of Dogma - the "Holy Trinity" in interpretations based on the technology of Russian Philosophical Culture - the Trinity from the idealistic beginning?
I am sending the materials with one goal - to find out when and how this technology will be revived in Russia and what actions on my part should be taken in your opinion ???
The theory of organization, work and CHANGE of generations of spirituality of the Ethno-Russian People.
(based on the technology of the trinity from the idealistic beginning)
Why do you call the technology of materialistic dialectics, which was brought into Holy Russia by the Jewish-Christian-Communist religion, the PHILOSOPHY of the Spirituality of Orthodoxy?
Preamble.
Your Christianity contradicts the technology of the work of the culture of life of the Ethno-Russian People. Because the modern Civilization is the domination of the technology of materialistic dialectics. And the Technology of the work of the Culture of people's life as a whole is the work of the Harmony of diversity or is it the technology of the trinity from the idealistic beginning.
The name "Orthodoxy" comes from the technology of the work of the Rule or the experience of the life of the Ancestors. And the Spirituality of the Ethno-Russian People is the work of three triune sets of processes - Rule, Reveal, Navi. NU or the technology of the work of three triune sets of generations - these are ancestors, contemporaries, descendants.
Let me introduce SCIENCE from a simple Russian Scientist - this is a technology of trinity from an idealistic beginning, this is a technology that has developed from time immemorial as a culture of life of the Ethno-Russian people and is interpreted as a technology for the work of three triune sets of processes - this is Rule, Yav, Nav ...... .. Well or the technology of the work of the culture of life of three triune sets of generations - these are ancestors, contemporaries, descendants .......
1. The technology of the trinity from the idealistic beginning.
Philosophy is three triune sets of TECHNOLOGIES - these are three monistic (or metaphysics); the three dialectics are materialistic dialectics, existential. idealistic; three triune technologies are a trinity from the materialistic beginning (this is the technology of Buddhism), this is a trinity from the existential beginning (this is the technology of Islam), this is a trinity from the idealistic beginning (or this is the technology of Christianity).
You will generously excuse me, BUT having familiarized yourself with your materials, this is just CHILDREN'S pampering, because you live, understand, and reflect only the material world through KNOWLEDGE. And ONLY in interpretations using materialistic dialectics.
If you want to have SCIENCE from the Ethno-Russian PEOPLE?
2. Scientific interpretations of the spirituality of ancient Russia.
(based on the technology of Russian philosophical culture - the trinity from the idealistic beginning).
The spirituality of the Ethno-Russian people or in the interpretation of the Jewish-Christian-Communist religion is Paganism. The priestly-church brotherhood reshaped the clothes of Ethno-Russian Orthodoxy on their Jewish shoulders, and Christian Orthodoxy turned out.
This religious CLOTHING brought by Christianity to Russia was simply put on the BODY of the culture of the work of the spirituality of the Ethno-Russian people.
Today, like many years ago, the historical memory of the People is being revived, traditions, customs, mores, giving, etc., are returning in the spirituality of the common people, and in empiricism, or is it the experience of ancestors, which is transmitted in historical memory, and into science. The Spirituality of the Ethno-Russian People wakes up as a historical Memory of three triune sets of processes - both material HERITAGE and social (this is economics, politics, law), and spiritual (or this is ordinary consciousness and KNOWLEDGE, empirical, scientific).
Symbols of spirituality are being revived in holy places. On the temples are placed, carved from wood, the images of the gods, and in front of them a sacred fire burns. The words of ancient legends sound again, new generations of Priests and Magi accept initiation. The renewed pagan movement is gradually gaining momentum.
Christianity, which originated far from the Slavic tribes, as the spirituality of the humiliated and their masters, perceived Slavic paganism as an alien religion. Because, the technology of work of Christianity is a materialistic dialectic. But the technology of work of Ethno-Russian spirituality is a trinity from an idealistic beginning, or from a spiritual, intellectual, SCIENTIFIC one.
But the objective necessity of the entry of the Ethno-Russian people into the world economic process brought into the Russian SPIRITUALITY its divine, religious, dogmatic, Christian technologies, terminology, rituals and worship. Well, or Christianity is just CLOTHING dressed on the BODY of Ethno-Russian spirituality. Moreover, in its historical path of development, Christianity also went through three triune sets of stages of complication of itself - this is Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodoxy.
The essence of the stages of development is that there was a change of three triune sets of processes - a change in the subject of religion, the technology of its work, the trend of quantitative and qualitative relationships (relationships are three triune sets of processes - interactions, relationships, mutual reflections). But the process of developing the spirituality of any nation works in the technology of THREE triune processes - this is evolution, revolution, leaps. So the change of the NAME of the Russian FAITH became Orthodoxy in Christian interpretations, names. But in the interpretations of Russian philosophical culture, the technological principles of the trinity, unity, harmony of the diversity of the totality of generations remained.
Due to the objectivity of the spirituality of any people, Christianity simply changed its name in the Russian FAITH. Moreover, each of the three triune sets of World religions works in the technology of trinity.
3. What is a trinity?
This is the simultaneous joint work of THREE triune sets of processes - material, social, spiritual. And the essence of the trinity is that in each specific process of life, of any property person, all three work simultaneously, BUT one of the processes dominates, the second constitutes a contradiction to it, and the third harmonizes the work of the process as a whole.
And the spirituality of people is simply people's interpretation of the RULES, the work of these processes through the abilities available to each nation in the work of three triune sets of principles - matter, space, time. But the basis of the spirituality of each nation is simply becoming more complicated, but does NOT change about the original, which is laid down in these triune sets of processes.
Orthodoxy was implanted in Russia in contradiction to the original Russian interpretations, because instead of the trinity of FAITH, a dialectic or contradiction between the people and the authorities was implanted. And therefore Russian spirituality was brutally destroyed from above. The people resisted this for several centuries and introduced paganism into Christianity in various ways (by allegory, coding, allusion, renaming by consonance or inner close essence, etc.), in the end, the people's (original pagan) worldview, ethics, dissolved into Christianity, creating a unique alloy.
Russian Orthodoxy, as spirituality, by the way, is a pagan name, from the three triune spiritual processes it is Rule, Yav, Nav, well, or three triune processes of the life of generations - these are ancestors, contemporaries, descendants. Therefore, the name comes from the name of the Experience of the Ancestors - from the Rule. And in an older interpretation of this trinity, the totality of property persons is given in such names - these are Yasun, Mirdgard, Dasun.
The very concept of culture has developed historically in the Russian language as processes built on the basis of the WORK of people, although it has historically different interpretations, which become more complicated depending on the complexity of the rules of the very practice of people's lives.
One of the interpretations of culture comes from the word "cult" - the faith, customs and traditions of the ancestors, created by the WORK of people in the course of socio-historical development. At the same time, labor itself is three triune types - physical, managerial, mental. And therefore there are three triune commodity processes - this is material production, this is social production (or these are constitutions, laws, tariffs, MONEY, etc.), this is spiritual production. And in the wake of the complication of the practice of people's lives, people's ability to cultivate the process of life is changing, and the interpretation of these rules of life is also changing.
Thus, spirituality, as a commodity production of the spiritual sphere of economic processes, is also changing. Here, such a concept as the Master Spirit (and similar ones: the lord; or the spirit of the locus, the spirit of the place, the genius of the place) is perfectly suitable - a common term of primitive religions, as well as modern folklore, which has passed as a synonym for the deity in all higher religions.
Thus, the Master Spirit is the work of idealistic processes (spiritual, intellectual, scientific, etc.). And they work in three triune sets of processes - these are material, social (economics, politics, law), intellectual.
4. Master Spirit.
The Master Spirit, as a set of RULES for the work of any particular process, works in three triune sets of processes: - the first set is three triune sets of objects - this is matter, space, time.
Matter is three triune sets of objects - these are physical, chemical, biological processes.
Space is the environment for the distribution of these objectivities, which work in three triune sets of participation in the organization of the process - they are dominant, contradictory, harmonizing (this applies to all three triune sets of processes).
Time is just a process of operation of periodicities in each of the components. - The second set of processes is the RULES of technology operation - these are monistic, dialectical, triune.
Monistic technologies are a process in which the main principle is the dominance of one of the components over the others and the organization of processes based on its rules of operation.
Dialectical technologies are the organization of the work of the process as a basis, where the principle of contradiction of two or more opposites works.
The trinity of the work of the process is when all three components work in each component, BUT one of them occupies a dominant position, the second forms a contradiction to it, and the third harmonizes the work of the process as a whole. - these are evolutionary processes, revolutionary, LEAP or transition to a new quality of being.
5. Objectivity of information work.
What symbols, images, customs, etc. Well, or visual, verbal, virtual reflections of the RULES of work of Ethno-Russian culture work in the practice of people's lives. Here we should mention the work of the trinity from the idealistic beginning.
According to this technology, three triune levels of complexity of PERSONS OF OWNERSHIP work in the process of people's lives - these are single processes of being of persons of property, these are separate, these are common. Well, or so, in the practice of people's lives, three triune generations work simultaneously - this is a family, a nation, an INTERNATIONAL person of property.
Moreover, the trinity of family spirituality is three triune sets of persons of property - this is male spirituality, female, children's. Likewise, national persons have three triune sets of components - past, present, future or continuity of generations, or these are three triune sets of generations - these are ancestors, contemporaries, descendants.
And the INTERNATIONAL person forms three triune world religions - this is Buddhism or the dominance of material spirituality; Islam or the contradiction of the material and the spiritual, Christianity is the harmony of the diversity of the three triune sets of processes - these are material, social, spiritual. Moreover, Christianity is three triune STAGES of complicating the technologies of religion, or is it Protestantism, Catholicism, Orthodoxy.
Thus, in the practice of people's lives, according to the existence of the spirituality of the Ethno-Russian people, there are three triune levels of complexity of the processes of spirituality:
- is it the general objectivity of the process or is it the Universal Spirituality.
- this is the Mediator between the universal and earthly spirituality or a separate one - this is the Spirit-Simargl.
– And only then the work of the Earthly spirituality is the Spirit-Rod, this is the work of spirituality in the Souls of people or a single or three triune sets of processes or spirituality in communication between people – these are the Spirits-Mother-Earth, which people understand; these are the Spirits-Children-People; these are Spirits-Fathers-Reason.
Sincerely, Simple Russian Scientist Chefonov V.M.
This book is a direct continuation, as it were, of the second volume, of my study “Paganism of the Ancient Slavs”, published in 1981. In the first book, the author was primarily interested in the deep roots of those folk religious ideas that are covered by the vague term “paganism”.
In elucidating these roots and the depth of folk memory, it was necessary to widely use not only fragmentary information about the archaeological realities of antiquity, but also data from folk art and folklore of the 19th century. and medieval teachings against paganism, written in the XI-XIII centuries. These excursions to later eras served only one purpose - to help clarify the primary forms of mythology, its origins and, as far as possible, determine the time of the emergence of certain religious and mythological ideas. Deepening into the Paleolithic or Eneolithic was not an end in itself and by no means meant a complete and comprehensive outline of the ideas of these eras. It was important for the author to show that elements of the worldview of the deepest antiquity were preserved in the peasant environment of Russia until the 19th, and in some ways even until the beginning of the 20th century. This gave the right to widely use such precious material as ethnographic material for all intermediate epochs.
This second volume is devoted, firstly, to the analysis of East Slavic paganism throughout the entire 1st millennium of our era up to the meeting with Christianity; secondly, the complex symbiosis of the ancient folk religion with Christianity introduced from outside will be considered here.
The last stage in the development of the tribal system among the Eastern Slavs gave a lot of new things in the field of ideological ideas. Kievan Rus was created as a pagan state in which the religion of great-grandfathers reached its climax. With the adoption of Christianity, a kind of amalgam of old and new forms is created, called "dual faith".
Chronologically, this volume covers the time from the first mention of the Venedian Slavs by ancient authors in the 1st - 2nd centuries. n. e. before the Tatar invasion in 1237 - 1241.
East Slavic paganism on the eve of creation Kievan Rus and in its further coexistence with Christianity is reflected in in large numbers materials that are sources for its study. First of all, these are authentic and accurately dated archaeological materials that reveal the very essence of the pagan cult: idols of the gods, sanctuaries, cemeteries without external ground signs ("fields of burials", "fields of funeral urns"), as well as with preserved mounds of ancient mounds. In addition, these are diverse products of applied art found in mounds, in treasures and simply in the cultural layers of cities, saturated with archaic pagan symbols. Of these, women's adornments are of the greatest value, often used as wedding sets in burial complexes and, for this reason, are especially saturated with magical incantations and amulets-amulets. A peculiar, but very poorly studied remnant of pagan antiquity are the numerous names of tracts: "Holy Mountain", "Bald Mountain" (the residence of witches), "Holy Lake", "Holy Grove", "Peryn", "Volosovo", etc.
A very important source is the testimonies of contemporaries, recorded in the annals or in specially written teachings against paganism. Regarding the latter, it should be said that they are very different from the information of contemporaries about the Western Slavs. To the west, to the lands of the Baltic Slavs, missionaries went with the task of baptizing the local population and introducing them to the flock of the pope. The stories of Catholic bishops about Slavic pagan temples and rites were a kind of reporting to the Roman curia about the success of their apostolic work. The missionaries wrote according to the principle of contrasts: rampant, violent paganism with crowded festivities and bloody sacrifices, on the one hand, and splendor and humility after the success of the preaching of Christianity, on the other. The description of the pagan cult was one of the tasks of Western missionary bishops, and this makes their records especially valuable. Russian authors of the XI-XIII centuries. they did not describe paganism, but scourged it, did not list the elements of the pagan cult, but indiscriminately condemned all demonic actions, without going into details that could interest us, but were too well known to the environment to which the preachers addressed. Nevertheless, despite the indicated feature of Russian anti-pagan teachings, they are of undoubted value.
As for ethnography as such, as a science of the 19th-20th centuries, it should be said that without the involvement of the immense and highly valuable ethnographic and folklore material, the theme of paganism cannot be brought to an end.
With regard to Kievan Rus, we must say that those topics that can be so fully represented in the proposed ethnographic volume are not documented for the era of Kievan Rus or survived only fragmentarily. It is possible in many cases to use the retrospective method, but this method has one weak point - we do not always know at what chronological depth we should stop in retrospection, where the exact scientific method ends and where the assumption begins.
A number of sections of the book "Paganism of the Ancient Slavs" are devoted to the search for these boundaries between the authentic and the alleged, in which the depth of memory of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peasants was clarified.
The identification of deep roots gives us the right to apply the method of extrapolation, i.e., the spread to Kievan Rus of those beliefs and forms of worship that are documented both for an earlier time and for a later one.
Considering the possibility of reliable extrapolation, we must also saturate our ideas about the paganism of ancient Russia with ideas about round dances, ritual songs, masquerades, about children's games, about fairy tales. Almost all the wealth of East Slavic folklore recorded in the 19th century can be projected into the 1st millennium AD. e. and thereby bring our idea of that era closer to its real diversity and brilliance, which are completely insufficiently reflected by archeology or teachings against paganism.
For about a century and a half, Kievan Rus was a state with a pagan system, often opposed to the penetration of Christianity. In Kievan Rus IX - X centuries. an influential class of priests ("magicians") was formed, who led the rites, preserved the ancient mythology and developed thoughtful agrarian-incantational symbolism.
In the era of Svyatoslav, in connection with the wars with Byzantium, Christianity became a persecuted religion, and paganism was reformed and opposed to Christianity penetrating Russia: the so-called "Vladimir's Pantheon" was, on the one hand, a response to Christianity, and on the other hand, the assertion of princely power and domination of the feudal warrior class.
The performance of tribal ritual actions ("cathedrals", "events"), the organization of ritual actions, sanctuaries and grandiose princely mounds, the observance of the calendar terms of the annual ritual cycle, the storage, execution and creative replenishment of the fund of mythological and epic tales required a special priestly estate ("magi" , "sorcerers", "cloud chasers", "sorcerers", "indulgences", etc.). A century after the baptism of Russia, the Magi could, in some cases, win over an entire city to their side to oppose the prince or bishop (Novgorod). In the 980s, Greek Christianity found in Russia not a simple village quackery, but a significantly developed pagan culture with its own mythology, pantheon of the main deities, priests and, in all likelihood, with its own pagan chronicle of 912-980. The strength of pagan ideas in Russian feudal cities of the Middle Ages is evident, firstly, from numerous church teachings directed against pagan beliefs and pagan rites and festivals held in cities, and, secondly, from the pagan symbolism of applied art, which served not only ordinary people of the city. settlements, but also higher, princely circles (treasures of the 1230s). In the second half of the XII century. the pagan element was still fully expressed. The picture of the world of the then Russian townspeople was a combination of the scheme of Kozma Indikoplova with such archaic images.
In Slavic fairy tales, there are many magical characters - sometimes terrible and formidable, sometimes mysterious and incomprehensible, sometimes kind and ready to help. Modern people they seem like a bizarre fiction, but in the old days in Russia they firmly believed that Baba Yaga's hut was in the thicket of the forest, a snake abducting beauties lives in the harsh stone mountains, they believed that a girl could marry a bear, and a horse could speak in a human voice.
Such a faith was called paganism, i.e. "folk faith".
The pagan Slavs worshiped the elements, believed in the relationship of people with various animals, and made sacrifices to the deities inhabiting everything around. Each Slavic tribe prayed to their gods. There have never been common ideas about the gods for the entire Slavic world: since the Slavic tribes in pre-Christian times did not have a single state, they were not united in beliefs. Therefore, the Slavic gods are not related by kinship, although some of them are very similar to each other.
Due to the fragmentation of pagan beliefs, which never reached their peak, very little information about paganism has been preserved, and even then it is rather meager. Actually Slavic mythological texts have not been preserved: the religious and mythological integrity of paganism was destroyed during the Christianization of the Slavs.
The main source of information on early Slavic mythology is medieval chronicles, annals written by outsiders in German or Latin and Slavic authors (the mythology of the Polish and Czech tribes), teachings against paganism ("Words") and chronicles. Valuable information is contained in the writings of Byzantine writers and geographical descriptions of medieval Arab and European authors.
All these data refer mainly to the eras that followed the Proto-Slavic, and contain only separate fragments of common Slavic mythology. Chronologically, archeological data on rituals, sanctuaries, individual images (Zbruch idol, etc.) coincide with the Proto-Slavic period.
Funeral ritual.
The stages of development of the pagan worldview of the ancient Slavs were largely determined by the Middle Dnieper historical center. The people of the Middle Dnieper region laid "sacred paths" to the Greek cities and placed stone idols with a cornucopia along these paths. Somewhere on the Dnieper there should have been the main sanctuary of all the skolots - farmers, in which the sacred heavenly plow was kept. Much will be explained in the religious history of Kievan Rus through an appeal to the ancestors of Rus.
The evolution of funeral rites and different forms of funeral rite mark significant changes in the understanding of the world.
The turning point in the views of the ancient Slav occurred back in the Proto-Slavic time, when the burial of crouched corpses in the ground began to be replaced by the burning of the dead and the burial of burnt ashes in urns.
The crouched burials imitated the position of the embryo in the mother's womb; crouching was achieved by artificially binding the corpse. Relatives prepared the deceased for a second birth on earth, for his reincarnation into one of the living beings. The idea of reincarnation was based on the concept of a special life force that exists separately from a person: the same physical appearance belongs to a living person and a dead one.
The crouching of corpses persists until the turn of the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. In place of crouching comes new form burial: the dead are buried in an extended position. But the most striking change in the funeral rite is associated with the appearance of cremation, the complete burning of corpses.
In real archaeological traces of the funeral rite, the coexistence of both forms is constantly observed - ancient inhumation, burial of the dead in the ground.
When cremated, it stands out quite distinctly new idea the souls of the ancestors, who must be somewhere in the middle sky, and, obviously, contribute to all celestial operations (rain, snow, fog) for the benefit of the descendants remaining on earth. Having carried out the burning, sending the soul of the deceased to a host of other souls of the ancestors, the ancient Slav then repeated everything that was done thousands of years ago: he buried the ashes of the deceased in the ground and thereby provided himself with all those magical advantages that were inherent in simple inhumation .
Among the elements of the funeral rite, one should name: mounds, a burial structure in the form of a human dwelling and the burial of the ashes of the deceased in an ordinary food pot.
Pots and bowls of food are the most common things in Slavic pagan burial mounds. The pot for preparing food from the first fruits was often considered a sacred object. The pot, as a symbol of goodness, satiety, goes back, in all likelihood, to very ancient times, approximately to the agricultural Neolithic, when agriculture and pottery first appeared.
The closest to the relationship of the sacred pot for the first fruits with the urn for the burial of ashes are anthropomorphic stove-vessels. Vessels-stoves are a small pot of a simplified form, to which is attached a cylindrical or truncated-conical oven tray with several round smoke holes and a large arched opening at the bottom for burning with torches or coals.
The connecting link between the god of the sky, the god of fruitful clouds and the cremated ancestors, whose souls are no longer incarnated into living beings on earth, but reside in the sky, was the pot in which for many hundreds of years the primitive farmers cooked the first fruits and thanked the god of heaven with a special celebration .
The rite of cremation appears almost simultaneously with the separation of the Proto-Slavs from the common Indo-European array in the 15th century. BC. and exists among the Slavs for 27 centuries until the era of Vladimir Monomakh. The process of burial is imagined as follows: a funeral pyre was laid, a dead man was “laid up” on it, and this funeral business was accompanied by a religious and decorative structure - a geometrically exact circle was drawn around the thief, a deep but narrow ditch was dug in a circle and a light fence was built like a fence made of twigs, to which a significant amount of straw was applied. When the fire was lit, the flaming fence with its flame and smoke closed the process of burning the corpse inside the fence from the participants in the ceremony. It is possible that it was precisely this combination of the funeral "heap of firewood" with the regular circumference of the ritual fence that separated the world of the living from the world of the dead ancestors, and was called "steal".
Among the Eastern Slavs, from the point of view of pagan beliefs, the burning of animals, both domestic and wild, along with the dead, is of great interest.
The custom of burying in dominoes, or rather erecting dominoes over Christian graves, survived in the land of the ancient Vyatichi until the beginning of the 20th century.
Animal deities.
In a distant era, when the main occupation of the Slavs was hunting, and not agriculture, they believed that wild animals were their ancestors. The Slavs considered them powerful deities to be worshipped. Each tribe had its own totem, i.e. a sacred animal worshiped by the tribe. Several tribes considered the Wolf as their ancestor and revered him as a deity. The name of this beast was sacred, it was forbidden to pronounce it aloud.
The owner of the pagan forest was a bear - the most powerful beast. He was considered the protector from all evil and the patron of fertility - it was with the spring awakening of the bear that the ancient Slavs associated the onset of spring. Up to the twentieth century. many peasants kept a bear's paw in their homes as a talisman-amulet, which should protect its owner from diseases, witchcraft and all kinds of troubles. The Slavs believed that the bear was endowed with great wisdom, almost omniscience: they swore by the name of the beast, and the hunter who violated the oath was doomed to death in the forest .
Of the herbivores in the hunting era, the Olenikha (Moose Elk) was the most revered - the most ancient Slavic goddess of fertility, sky and sunlight. In contrast to real deer, the goddess was thought to be horned, her horns were a symbol of the sun's rays. Therefore, deer antlers were considered a powerful amulet against all evil spirits at night and were attached either above the entrance to the hut or inside the dwelling.
Heavenly goddesses - Deer - sent newborn deer to the earth, pouring like rain from the clouds.
Among domestic animals, the Slavs revered the Horse most of all, because once the ancestors of most of the peoples of Eurasia led a nomadic lifestyle, and in the guise of a golden horse running across the sky, they imagined the sun. Later, a myth arose about the sun god riding a chariot across the sky.
domestic deities.
Spirits inhabited not only forests and waters. There are many household deities known - well-wishers and well-wishers, at the head of which is a brownie table, which lived either in the oven, or in a bast shoes hung for him on the stove.
The brownie patronized the household: if the owners were diligent, he added good to the good, and punished laziness with misfortune. It was believed that the brownie treated cattle with special attention: at night he combed the manes and tails of horses (and if he was angry, then on the contrary he tangled animal hair into tangles), he could take milk from cows, or he could make milk yield plentiful, he had power over life and health of newborn pets. Because the brownie tried to appease. When moving to new house on the eve of the move, they took 2 pounds of white flour, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 0.5 pounds of butter, 2 pinches of salt. They kneaded the dough and carried it to a new house. They baked bread from this dough. If the bread is good, then life is good; if the bread is bad, then soon move. On the 3rd day, guests were called and dinner was served and an extra appliance was placed for the brownie. They poured wine and clinked glasses with the brownie. They cut the bread, treated everyone. One humpback was wrapped in a cloth and kept forever. The second was salted 3 times, a silver money was stuck in an edge and placed under the stove. This stove was tilted 3 times from 3 sides. They took a cat and brought it to the stove as a gift for a brownie: “I give you a brownie-father, a furry beast for a rich yard. After 3 days, they looked - whether the wine was drunk, if it was drunk, then it was topped up again. If the wine is not drunk, then they asked 9 days 9 times to taste the treat. A treat for the brownie was set every 1st day of the month.
Faith in the brownie was closely intertwined with the belief that dead relatives help the living. In the minds of people, this is confirmed by the connection between the brownie and the stove. In ancient times, many believed that it was through the chimney that the soul of the newborn entered the family and that the spirit of the deceased also left through the chimney.
Images of brownies were carved from wood and represented a bearded man in a hat. Such figurines were called churami and at the same time symbolized the dead ancestors.
In some northern Russian villages, there were beliefs that, in addition to the brownie, the yard god, the cattleman and the kutny god also take care of the household (these well-wishers lived in the barn and looked after the cattle, they were left some bread and cottage cheese in the corner of the barn), as well as the ovinnik - the keeper stocks of grain and hay.
Completely different deities lived in the bath, which in pagan times was considered an unclean place. Bannik was an evil spirit that frightened people. To appease the bannik, after washing, people left him a broom, soap and water, and a black chicken was sacrificed to the bannik.
The cult of "small" deities did not disappear with the advent of Christianity. Beliefs persisted for two reasons. Firstly, the veneration of "small" deities was less obvious than the cult of the gods of heaven, earth and thunder. Sanctuaries were not built for “small” deities; rituals in their honor were performed at home, in the family circle. Secondly, people believed that small deities live nearby and a person communicates with them daily, therefore, despite church prohibitions, they continued to honor good and evil spirits, thereby ensuring their well-being and safety.
Deities are monsters.
The most formidable was considered the lord of the underworld and underwater world - the Serpent. The serpent - a powerful and hostile monster - is found in the mythology of almost any nation. The ancient ideas of the Slavs about the Serpent have been preserved in fairy tales.
Northern Slavs worshiped the Serpent - the lord of underground waters - and called him the Lizard. The sanctuary of the Lizard was located on the swamps, the banks of lakes and rivers. The coastal shrines of the Lizard had a perfectly round shape - as a symbol of perfection, order, it was opposed to the destructive power of this god. As victims, the Lizard was thrown into the swamp of black chickens, as well as young girls, which was reflected in many beliefs.
All Slavic tribes that worshiped the Lizard considered him to be the absorber of the sun.
With the transition to agriculture, many myths and religious ideas of the hunting era were modified or forgotten, the rigidity of ancient rites softened: the sacrifice of a person was replaced by the sacrifice of a horse, and later a stuffed animal. The Slavic gods of the agricultural era are brighter and kinder to man.
Ancient shrines.
The complex system of pagan beliefs of the Slavs corresponded to an equally complex system of cults. "Small" deities had neither priests nor sanctuaries, they were prayed either one by one, or by a family, or by a village or tribe. To honor the high gods, several tribes gathered, for this purpose temple complexes were created, and a priestly class was formed.
Since ancient times, mountains, especially “bald”, i.e. mountains, have been a place of tribal prayers. with a bare top. At the top of the hill there was a "temple" - a place where a drop - an idol stood. Around the temple there was a horseshoe-shaped bulk shaft, on top of which the thieves were burning - sacred bonfires. The second rampart was the outer boundary of the sanctuary. The space between the two ramparts was called the treasury - they “consumed” there, i.e. ate sacrificial food. At ritual feasts, people became, as it were, companions of the gods. The feast could take place in the open air and in special buildings standing on that trek - mansions (temples), originally intended exclusively for ritual feasts.
Very few Slavic idols have survived. This is explained not so much by the persecution of paganism, but by the fact that the idols, for the most part, were wooden. The use of a tree, and not a stone to represent the gods, was explained not by the high cost of the stone, but by the belief in the magical power of the tree - the idol, thus, combined the sacred power of the tree and the deities.
Priests.
Pagan priests - sorcerers - performed rituals in sanctuaries, made idols and sacred objects, using magic spells, they asked the gods for a bountiful harvest. The Slavs for a long time kept faith in the wolves-clouders, who turned into wolves, in this guise rose to the sky and called for rain or dispersed the clouds. Another magical effect on the weather was - "enchantment" - incantations with a chara (cup) filled with water. Water from these vessels was sprinkled on crops to increase the yield.
The Magi also made amulets - women's and men's jewelry, covered with spell symbols.
gods of the era.
With the transition of the Slavs to agriculture, the solar (solar) gods began to play an important role in their beliefs. Much in the cult of the Slavs was borrowed from the neighboring eastern nomadic tribes, the names of the deities also have Scythian roots.
For several centuries, one of the most revered in Russia was Dazh-bog (Dazhdbog) - the god of sunlight, heat, harvest time, fertility, the God of summer and happiness. Also known as - Generous God. The symbol is the solar disk. Dazhdbog is located in a golden palace on the land of eternal summer. Sitting on a throne of gold and purple, he is not afraid of shadows, cold or misfortune. Dazhdbog flies across the sky in a golden chariot trimmed with diamonds, pulled by a dozen white horses with golden manes breathing fire. Dazhdbog is married to the Moon. A beautiful young girl appears at the beginning of summer, grows older every day and leaves Dazhdbog in winter. They say that earthquakes are a sign of a couple's bad mood.
Dazhdbog is served by four virgins of exceptional beauty. Zorya Morning opens the palace gates in the morning. Zorya Vechernyaya closes them in the evening. The Evening Star and the Star Dennitsa, the Morning Star, guard the wonderful horses of Dazhdbog.
Dazhbog was the god of sunlight, but by no means the luminary himself. Khors was the sun god. Khors, whose name means "sun", "circle", embodied the luminary moving across the sky. This is a very ancient deity, who did not have a human appearance and was represented simply by a golden disk. The cult of Khors was associated with a ritual spring dance - a round dance (moving in a circle), the custom of baking pancakes on Maslenitsa, resembling a solar disk in shape, and rolling lighted wheels, which also symbolized the luminary.
The companion of the gods of the sun and fertility was Semargl (Simorg) - a winged dog, the guardian of crops, the god of roots, seeds, sprouts. The symbol is the World Tree. Its animal appearance speaks of its antiquity; the idea of Semargl - the protector of crops - as a wonderful dog is easily explained: real dogs protected the fields from wild roe deer and goats.
Khors and Semargl are deities of Scythian origin, their cult came from eastern nomads, therefore both of these gods were widely revered only in Southern Russia, bordering on the Steppe.
Lada and Lelya were female deities of fertility, well-being, spring flowering of life.
Lada is the goddess of marriage, abundance, harvest time. Her cult can be traced among the Poles until the 15th century; in ancient times, it was common among all Slavs, as well as the Balts. Prayers were addressed to the goddess in late spring and during the summer, a white rooster was sacrificed (white color symbolized good).
Lada was called "Mother Leleva". Lelya - goddess unmarried girls, goddess of spring and first greenery. Her name is found in words associated with childhood: “lyalya”, “lyalka” - a doll and an appeal to a girl; "cradle"; "leleko" - a stork that brings children; "to cherish" - to take care of a small child. Lelya was especially revered by young girls, celebrating the spring holiday Lyalnik in her honor: they chose the most beautiful of their friends, put a wreath on her head, seated her on a turf bench (a symbol of sprouting young greenery), danced around her and sang songs glorifying Lelya, then the girl - "Lelya" presented her friends with wreaths prepared in advance.
The all-Slavic veneration of Makosha (Moksha) - the goddess of the earth, harvest, female fate, the great mother of all living things - goes back to the most ancient agricultural cult of Mother Earth. Makosh, as the goddess of fertility, is closely connected with Semargl and griffins, with mermaids irrigating fields, with water in general - Makosh was worshiped at springs, as a sacrifice, the girls threw yarn into the wells.
The male deity of fertility associated with the lower world was Veles (Volos). God of trade and beasts. Also known as - Keeper of the herds. Symbol - Sheaf of grain or grain tied into a knot. Sacred animals and plants: Ox, grain, wheat, corn. Volos is a benevolent god who regulates trade and makes sure promises are kept. Oaths and contracts are sworn in his name. When Perun became the greatest god war, he recognized that, unlike Svarozhich, he needed a cool head to advise. Because of this, he enlisted Volos to be his right hand and advisor.
The hair also has a different side. He is the protection of all tamed animals. Volos appears in the guise of a bearded shepherd. Volos is the patron god of armor.
Among the common Slavic gods of fertility, a special place is occupied by warlike gods, to whom bloody sacrifices were made - Yarilo and Perun. Despite the deep antiquity and, consequently, the wide popularity of these gods, they were little revered by most Slavic tribes because of their warlike appearance.
Yarilo is the god of spring and fun. The symbol is a garland or crown of wild flowers. Sacred animals and plants - wheat, grain. Cheerful Yarilo is the patron saint of spring plants.
The Slavic Thunderer was Perun. The symbol is a crossed ax and hammer. His cult is one of the oldest and dates back to the 3rd millennium BC, when warlike shepherds on war chariots, possessing bronze weapons, subjugated neighboring tribes. The main myth of Perun tells about the battle of God with the Serpent, the thief of cattle, waters, sometimes luminaries and the wife of the Thunderer.
Perun - a snake fighter, the owner of a lightning-hammer, is closely associated with the image of a magical blacksmith. Blacksmithing was perceived as magic. The name of the legendary founder of the city of Kyiv Kiy means hammer. Perun was called the "princely god", since he was the patron of princes, symbolizing their power.
Svantovit - the god of prosperity and war, also known as - Strong. The symbol is a cornucopia. Svantovit is worshiped in richly decorated temples guarded by warriors. It contains the priest's white horse, always ready to race into battle.
Svarozhich is the god of strength and honor. Also known as - scorching. Symbol: Black bison head or double-sided axe.
Svarozhich is the son of Svarog, and the fact that he manages the pantheon together with Dazhdbog is the intention of Svarozhich's father. The gift of Svarog - lightning - was entrusted to him. He is the god of the hearth and home and is known for his faithful advice and prophetic power. He is the god of a simple warrior who values peace.
Triglav is the god of plague and war. Also known as the Triple God. The symbol is a snake, curved in the shape of a triangle.
Triglav appears as a three-headed man wearing a golden veil over each of his faces. His heads represent heaven, earth and lower regions, and in wrestling he rides a black horse.
Chernobog is the god of Evil. Also known as the Black God. Symbol: Black figurine. It brings bad luck and misfortune; she is the cause of all disasters. Darkness, night and death are associated with her. Chernobog is in all respects the opposite of Belbog.
Paganism in urban life of the XI-XIII centuries.
The adoption of Christianity as the state religion did not mean a complete and rapid change in the way of thinking and way of life. Dioceses were established, churches were built, public services in pagan sanctuaries were replaced by services in Christian churches, but there was no serious change in views, a complete rejection of the beliefs of great-grandfathers and everyday superstitions.
Paganism was reproached for polytheism, and Christianity was credited with the invention of monotheism. Among the Slavs, the creator of the world and all living nature was Rod - Svyatovit.
Russian people singled out Jesus Christ from the trinity and built the Church of the Savior, which replaced the pagan Dazhbog.
Christianity also reflected primitive dualism. The head of all the forces of evil was Satanail, undefeated by the god, with his numerous and branched army, against which the god and his angels were powerless. Almighty God could not destroy not only Satan himself, but also the smallest of his servants. A person himself had to “drive away demons” by the righteousness of his life and magical actions.
Such an important branch of primitive religion as magical effect to higher powers by a ritual action, a spell, a prayer song, was at one time absorbed by Christianity and remained an integral part of church rituals. Religious support for statehood at the right time progressive development feudalism, the prohibition of bloody sacrifices, a wide stream of literature that went to Russia from Byzantium and Bulgaria - these consequences of the baptism of Russia had a progressive significance.
An outbreak of sympathy for great-grandfather paganism occurs in the second half of the 12th century. and, perhaps, it is connected both with the disappointment of the social elites in the behavior of the Orthodox clergy, and with the new political form, which brought closer in the XII century. local princely dynasties to the land, to the zemstvo boyars, and partly to the population of their principalities in general. One can think that the priestly class improved their ideas about the magical connection between the macrocosm and the microcosm of personal attire, about the possibility of influencing life phenomena through incantational symbols and pagan apotropaea. Dual faith was not just a mechanical combination of old habits and beliefs with new Greek ones; in a number of cases it was a well-thought-out system in which ancient ideas were quite consciously preserved. An excellent example of Christian-pagan dual faith are the well-known amulets - coils, worn on the chest over clothing.
Dual faith was not just the result of the church's tolerance for pagan superstitions, it was an indicator of the further historical life of aristocratic paganism, which, even after the adoption of Christianity, developed, improved, developed new subtle methods of rivalry with religion imposed from outside.
Pagan rites and festivities in the 11th-13th centuries
The annual cycle of ancient Russian festivities was composed of different, but equally archaic elements, dating back to the Indo-European unity of the first farmers or to the Middle Eastern agricultural cults adopted by early Christianity.
One of the elements was the solar phases: winter solstice, spring equinox and summer solstice. The autumnal equinox is very poorly marked in ethnographic records.
The second element was a cycle of prayers for rain and for the impact of the vegetative force on the harvest. The third element was the cycle of harvest festivals. The fourth element was the days of commemoration of the ancestors (radunitsa). The fifth could be carols, holidays in the first days of each month. The sixth element was Christian holidays, some of which also marked the solar phases, and some were associated with the agrarian cycle of the southern regions of the Mediterranean, which had different calendar dates than the agrarian cycle of the ancient Slavs.
As a result, a very complex and multi-basic system of Russian folk holidays was gradually created.
One of the main elements of Christmastide rites was dressing up in animal-like clothes and dancing in "mashkers". Ritual masks were depicted on silver bracelets.
Masquerades continued throughout the winter Christmas time, acquiring a special revelry in their second half - from January 1 to January 6, on the "terrible" Veles days.
After the adoption of Christianity as the state religion, there was a calendar contact between the ancient pagan holidays and the new, church-state holidays, obligatory for the ruling elites. In a number of cases, Christian holidays, which arose, like Slavic ones, on a primitive astronomical basis, on solar phases, coincided in time (Christmas, the Annunciation), often they diverged.
Rusal spell rites and dances were the initial stage of the pagan festival, culminating in an obligatory ritual feast with the obligatory consumption of sacrificial meat sacrificial food: pork, beef, chickens and eggs.
Since many pagan holidays coincided or corresponded in calendar with the Orthodox ones, outwardly decency was almost observed: the feast was arranged, for example, not on the occasion of the holiday of women in childbirth, but because of the day of the Nativity of the Virgin, but continued the next day already as a “lawless second meal” .
The historical development of Slavic-Russian paganism.
"Paganism" is an extremely vague term that arose in the church environment to refer to everything non-Christian, pre-Christian.
The Slavic-Russian part of the vast pagan massif should by no means be understood as a separate, independent, and inherent only to the Slavs, variant of primitive religious ideas.
The main defining material for the study of paganism is ethnographic: rituals, round dances, songs, children's games, into which archaic ritualism has degenerated, fairy tales, preserved fragments of ancient mythology and epic.
As primitive society developed, to a greater and greater extent, a complication of its social structure developed on religious ideas: the allocation of leaders and priests, the consolidation of tribes and tribal cults, external relations, and wars.
Speaking about evolution, it should be noted that the deities that have arisen under certain conditions can acquire new functions over time, their place in the pantheon can change.
The world of the then pagans consisted of four parts: the earth, two heavens and the underground-water zone. This was not the specifics of Slavic paganism, but was the result of a universal stadial-convergent development of ideas that varied in details, but were mainly determined by this scheme. The most difficult thing is to unravel the ancient ideas about the earth, about a large land area filled with rivers, forests, fields, animals and human dwellings. For many peoples, the earth was depicted as a rounded plane surrounded by water. Water was concretized either as a sea or in the form of two rivers washing the earth, which may be more archaic and local - wherever a person was, he was always between any two rivers or streams, limiting his nearest land area.
Medieval people, regardless of whether they were baptized or not, continued to believe in the great-grandfather dualistic scheme of the forces that rule the world, and by all archaic measures tried to protect themselves, their homes and property from the action of vampires and "Navii" (alien and hostile dead).
Under princes Igor, Svyatoslav and Vladimir, paganism became the state religion of Russia, the religion of princes and combatants. Paganism was strengthened and revived the ancient rituals that began to die out. The commitment of the young state to the great-grandfather paganism was a form and means of maintaining state political independence. Renewed paganism in the 10th century was formed in the conditions of rivalry with Christianity, which was reflected not only in the arrangement of magnificent princely funeral pyres, not only in the persecution of Christians and the destruction of Orthodox churches by Svyatoslav, but also in a more subtle form of opposition of Russian pagan theology to Greek Christian.
The adoption of Christianity to a very small extent changed the religious life of the Russian village in the 10th-12th centuries. The only innovation was the cessation of cremations. According to a number of secondary signs, one can think that the Christian doctrine of a blessed afterlife “in the next world”, as a reward for patience in this world, spread in the village after the Tatar invasion and as a result of initial ideas about the inescapability of a foreign yoke. Pagan beliefs, rituals, conspiracies, formed over thousands of years, could not disappear without a trace immediately after the adoption of a new faith.
The fall of the authority of the church reduced the power of church teachings against paganism, and it was in the XI - XIII centuries. did not fade away in all strata of Russian society, but moved to a semi-legal position, as church and secular authorities applied harsh measures to pagan sorcerers, up to a public auto-da-fe.
In the second half of the XII century. there is a revival of paganism in the cities and in the princely-boyar circles. The explanation for the revival of paganism can be the crystallization of one and a half dozen large principalities-kingdoms with their stable dynasties, which took shape since the 1130s, with the increased role of the local boyars and the more subordinate position of the episcopate, which turned out to be dependent on the prince. The renewal of paganism was reflected in the emergence of a new doctrine of an inscrutable light other than the sun, in the cult of a female deity, in the appearance of sculptural images of the deity of light.
As a result of a number of complex phenomena in Russia, by the beginning of the 13th century. a kind of dual faith was created both in the village and in the city, in which the village simply continued its religious great-grandfather life, being baptized, and the city and princely-boyar circles, having adopted a lot from the church sphere and widely using the social side of Christianity, not only did not forget their paganism with its rich mythology, rooted rituals and cheerful carnivals with their dances, but also raised their ancient, church-persecuted religion to a higher level, corresponding to the heyday of Russian lands in the 12th century.
Conclusion
Despite the millennial domination of the state Orthodox Church, pagan beliefs were popular faith and up to the XX century. manifested in rituals, dance games, songs, fairy tales and folk art.
The religious essence of the rites-games has long since disappeared, the symbolic sound of the ornament has been forgotten, fairy tales have lost their mythological meaning, but even the forms of archaic pagan creativity unconsciously repeated by descendants are of great interest, firstly, as a vivid component of the later peasant culture, and secondly, as an invaluable treasury of information about the many thousands of years of knowledge of the world by our distant ancestors.
IN Ancient Russia, in those days when Christianity was not yet accepted, the Slavs idolized otherworldly incorporeal beings. The pagan gods of ancient Russia, according to the ideas of the ancients, are endowed with supernatural powers to influence everything that exists. They are responsible for all the fundamental principles of human existence, they control both the fate of the people themselves and everything that surrounds them.
Each deity performs a specific, utilitarian function. The history of the depths of centuries keeps many dozens of names, of which only a part is known to us now. This part has survived to this day thanks to the pagan rituals and rituals passed down from generation to generation, which over time became the basis of the customs of the Slavic family.
At the hierarchical top stands the supreme god, under his command are the gods of the environment for the existence of all living things, then the gods of human destinies and everyday life of people, at the bottom of the pyramid are the elements and forces of darkness.
Table pagan gods of ancient Russia:
| No. p / p | Deity name | purpose |
| 1 | GENUS | Supreme god of heaven and earth |
| 2 | HORSE | Sun God |
| 3 | YARILO | God of the spring sun. Son of Veles |
| 4 | DAZHDBOG | God of fertility and sunshine |
| 5 | SVAROG | Master of the Universe. sky god |
| 6 | PERUN | god of lightning and thunder |
| 7 | STRIBOG | wind god |
| 8 | VELES | God of fertility (cattle) |
| 9 | LADA | The female incarnation of the Family |
| 10 | CHERNOBOG | Lord of the powers of darkness |
| 11 | MOKOSH | Goddess of the earth, harvest and female destiny |
| 12 | PARASKEVA-FRIDAY | Ruler of revelry |
| 13 | MORAINE | Goddess of Evil, Disease and Death |
Ancient Slavic God Rod
This is the supreme god, commanding all things in the universe, including all other gods. He heads the top of the pagan pantheon of gods. He is the creator and ancestor. He is omnipotent and affects the entire cycle of life. It exists everywhere and has no beginning or end. This description is fully consistent with the idea of God in all modern religions.
The clan governs life and death, abundance and poverty. No one has ever seen him, but he sees everyone. The root of his name is sewn into human speech - into the words by which people interpret (voiced) their dominant spiritual and material values in the material world. Birth, relatives, homeland, spring, harvest - in all this there is a Genus.
Hierarchy of the pagan gods of Russia
Under the authority of the Family, all Slavic deities and other spiritual entities are distributed according to the steps corresponding to their impact on the everyday affairs of people.
The upper step is occupied by deities that manage global and national affairs: wars and ethnic conflicts, weather disasters, fertility and hunger, fertility and mortality.
At the middle stage are the deities responsible for local affairs. These are the patrons Agriculture, crafts, fishing and hunting, family worries. People liken their face to their own.
The stylobate of the foundation of the pantheon is reserved for spiritual entities, whose bodily appearance is unlike that of a human being. These are kikimoras, ghouls, goblin, brownies, ghouls, mermaids and many others like them.
The Slavic hierarchical pyramid ends here, in contrast to the ancient Egyptian one, where there was also an afterlife with its own governing deities and laws, or let's say, where the basis is a numerous pantheon of gods.
Slavic gods in importance and power
God of the Slavs Khors and his incarnations
Khors is the son of Rod and the brother of Veles. This is the god of the Sun in Ancient Russia. Horse's face is like a sunny day - yellow, radiant, dazzlingly bright. It has 4 incarnations:
- Kolyada
- Yarilo
- Dazhdbog
- Svarog.
Each hypostasis operates in a certain season of the year, and people expect help from each divine incarnation, with which the corresponding rituals and ceremonies are associated.
We still observe the traditions of the ancient Slavs: we tell fortunes at Christmas time, we fry pancakes at Maslenitsa, we burn bonfires and weave wreaths at Ivan Kupala.
1. God of the Slavs Kolyada
Kolyada begins the annual cycle and rules from the winter solstice to the spring equinox (December 22 - March 21). In December, people greet the young Sun and praise Kolyada with ritual songs; The festivities last until January 7th. This is the Saints.
By this time, the owners are slaughtering their pets, opening pickles, and stocks are being taken to fairs. Throughout Christmastime, people arrange gatherings, plentiful feasts, guessing, having fun, getting married and playing weddings. In general, doing nothing becomes quite legal. Kolyada treats with his mercy all benefactors who show mercy and generosity to the poor.
2. God of the Slavs Yarilo
He is Yarovit, Ruevit, Yar - the solar god of a young age with the face of a barefoot young man on a white horse. Wherever he looks, shoots will sprout, where he passes, the grass will sprout. On his head is a crown of ears of corn, in his left hand he holds a bow and arrows, in his right - the reins. Its time is from the spring equinox to the summer solstice (March 22 - June 21). The people in the house have depleted supplies, and there is a lot of work. When the sun turned back, then the tension in the labors subsided, the time of Dazhdbog had come.
3. God of the Slavs Dazhdbog
He is also Kupala or Kupail - a solar god with the face of a man of mature age. Its time is from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox (June 22 - September 23). The celebration on the occasion of the meeting due to employment is postponed on July 6-7. On this mysterious night, people burn Yarila (or rather, a scarecrow) on a large fire and jump over it, the girls let wreaths of flowers woven from flowers down the river. Everyone is looking for the wishing fern in bloom. There is also a lot of work during this season: mowing, harvesting fruits, repairing the house, preparing the sled.
4. God of the Slavs Svarog
The weary sun is sinking lower and lower towards the horizon. In its slanting rays, the tall, strong old man Svarog (aka Svetovid), whitened with gray hair, takes over the baton of domination. He looks to the north, clutching a heavy sword in his hand, with which he smashes the forces of darkness. He is the husband of the Earth, the father of Dazhdbog and all other gods of natural phenomena. His time from September 23 to December 21 is a period of satiety, peace and prosperity. People do not grieve about anything, arrange fairs, play weddings.
Perun god of thunder and lightning
This is the god of war. In his right hand Perun holds a rainbow sword, in the left - lightning arrows. Clouds are his hair and beard, thunder is his speech, wind is his breath, raindrops are the fertilizing seed. He is the son of Svarog (Svarozhich), and is also endowed with a formidable disposition. He patronizes brave warriors and everyone who makes efforts for hard work, gives them good luck and strength.
Stribog god of the wind
He is a god above the gods of the elemental forces of nature (Whistle, Weather and others). Stribog is the lord of the wind, hurricanes and snowstorms. He can be touchingly kind and fiercely evil. When he angrily blows the horn, an element arises; when he is kind, the foliage simply rustles, streams murmur, the wind howls in the crevices of trees. From these sounds of nature came music and songs, and with them musical instruments. They pray to Stribog that the storm subsides, and the hunters ask him for help in pursuing a sensitive and shy beast.
Veles pagan god of wealth
This is the god of agriculture and cattle breeding. Veles is also called the god of wealth (aka Volos, Month). He rules over the clouds. As a young man, he himself was tending the heavenly sheep. In anger, Veles sends heavy rains to the ground. After reaping, people still leave him one harvested sheaf. In his name, they swear an oath of honor and fidelity.
Lada goddess of love and beauty
Goddess Lada is the patroness of the hearth. Her clothes are snow-white clouds, and the morning dews are tears. In the predawn haze, she escorts the shadows of the dead to the other world. Lada is the earthly incarnation of the Family, the high priestess, the mother goddess, surrounded by a retinue of young servants. She is beautiful and smart, bold and dexterous, flexible like a vine, a resounding flattering speech flows from her lips. Lada gives people advice on how to live, what can and cannot be done. It condemns the guilty and justifies the falsely accused. A long time ago, her temple stood on Ladoga, now her abode is the blue of heaven.
God of the Slavs Chernobog
Many ancient legends are said about swamp evil spirits, but not all of them have come down to us. After all, they are patronized by the powerful Chernobog - the lord of the dark forces of evil and whim, serious illnesses and bitter misfortunes. This is the god of darkness. His abode is terrible forest thickets, ponds covered with duckweed, deep pools and marshy swamps.
He holds a spear in his hand with malice and rules over the night. The evil forces subordinated to him are numerous: goblin, confusing forest paths, mermaids, dragging people into the whirlpools, cunning banniki, malicious and insidious ghouls, capricious brownies.
God of the Slavs Mokosh
Mokosh (Makesha), is the goddess of trade, like the ancient Roman Mercury. In Old Slavonic, mokosh means "full purse." She prudently uses the harvest. Another purpose is to control fate. She is interested in spinning and weaving; with spun threads, she weaves the destinies of people. Young housewives were afraid to leave an unfinished tow for the night, believing that Mokosha would ruin the yarn, and with it fate. Northern Slavs consider Mokosha an unkind goddess.
God of the Slavs Paraskeva-Friday
Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa is the concubine of Mokosha, who made Paraskeva a deity who rules over riotous youth, gambling, drinking parties with vulgar songs and obscene dances, as well as dishonest trade. Therefore, Friday was a market day in Ancient Russia for a long time. On this day, women were not allowed to work, because for disobedience, Paraskeva could turn a disobedient woman into a cold toad. She poisoned the water in wells and underground springs. Today, this goddess has no power and is almost forgotten.
God of the Slavs Morena
The goddess, the ruler of evil, incurable diseases and death, is Maruha or Morena. She sends fierce winters, rainy nights, epidemics and wars to Earth. Her image is a terrible woman with a dark wrinkled face with deeply sunken small eyes, a sunken nose, a bony body and the same hands with long curved nails. She is served by ailments. She herself never leaves. She is driven away, but she appears again and again.
The history of the pre-Christian beliefs of the Slavs has come down to us in the form of echoes of folk rituals, fairy tales and rare archaeological finds. Writing in Russia arose around the 9th century. n. e. Chronicle sources include the description of the marriage rites of the Slavs by Nestor the chronicler in the Tale of Bygone Years and the description of the pantheon collected by Vladimir in 980.
The term paganism was introduced by later Christian theologians. The word itself comes from the ancient Slavic "language" - peoples, tribes. It is customary to call pagans all peoples who do not profess the three main (Abrahamic) world religions - Christianity, Judaism, Islam.
Slavic paganism was formed in the 2nd millennium BC, when our ancestors separated from the Indo-European group. Obviously, the beliefs of the peoples and tribes that inhabited Ancient Russia differed from each other. The traditional beliefs of Ancient Russia, like all ancient peoples, were worship of the forces of nature. It was on these forces that the very factor of survival of our ancestors depended. The sun, rain, nature surrounding man, fire became deified objects of veneration. The whole world around was filled with spirits, creatures from the world of the dead and gods.
The place of residence determined the name and properties of the spirit. A goblin lived in the forest - the owner of the thicket, an evil old man, the patron of forest animals and plants. The reservoirs were inhabited by water and waterwomen (mermaids) - insidious creatures seeking to drag a person to the depths. The owners of the fields - the field workers spoiled the crops, diverted the rains. In the dwellings, respectively, brownies lived, and in the baths - banniks. A good brownie keeps well-being in the family, an evil one spoils food and utensils. The female analogue of the brownie is a kikimora, a sloppy and ugly old woman, a petty dirty trick. As a rule, all these creatures were perceived by our ancestors as the spirits of dead people. This sends us to the cult of ancestors who magically participate in the life of descendants. So, one of the brightest spirits of Baba Yaga is the guardian of the border between the world of the living and the dead. Therefore, people cajoled the spirits, made offerings before the start of each important business.
Pagan gods of ancient Russia
Perhaps the only mention of a pagan temple in the annals we find in the "Tale of Bygone Years"
“And the beginning of Prince Volodimer in Kiev is one, and put idols on the hill, outside the courtyard of the tower: Perun is ancient, and his head is silver, and we are evil, and Kharsa and Dazhbog and Stribog and Smargl and Mokosh. And I zhryahu I call the gods "
These six gods were called the pantheon of Prince Vladimir.
Perun- God of thunder and lightning. Perun moved across the sky on a golden chariot drawn by winged horses. Since he was the patron god of the prince and his squad, he naturally became the eldest of the gods and head of the pantheon. Bulls were brought to him as a request. One of the attributes of Perun was considered an ax. Amulets in the form of axes were worn by the prince's combatants. The oak was also a symbol of Perun, a sign of strength and eternity. The princes swore by his name, concluding agreements. Perun's oaths are contained in prisoners after campaigns in 907, 945 and 971:
“... and Oleg and his husbands were taken to swear allegiance according to Russian law, and they swore by their weapons and Perun, their god, and Volos, the god of cattle, and approved the world.”
Horse- the sun-god (according to another version - the god of the month, the "night sun"). They brought him pancakes (pancakes are similar in color and shape in the sun). On holidays dedicated to Khors, round dances were danced.
Dazhbog(Dazhdbog) - "giving prosperity", a solar deity, giving fertility. The patron saint of farmers. The author of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" calls the Russians "Dazhdbozh's grandchildren."
Stribog- the patron saint of merchants and sailors, possibly the god of wind and air, this conclusion was made on the basis of a quote from "The Tale of Igor's Campaign": "Behold the winds, Stribozh's grandchildren, blow from the sea with arrows on Igor's brave plucks"
Simargl(Semargl) - a semi-divine character, perhaps a deity of the original fire, an intermediary between the world of people and the world of gods. Depicted as a winged dog.
Mokosh(Makosh) is the only female deity in the pantheon of Vladimir. Goddess of fate, abundance, fertility, family hearth, patroness of women. She also patronizes weavers, she spins the thread of fate of all living beings, people and gods.
But there were deities that were not included in the pantheon of Vladimir:
Veles- cattle god, one of the most revered gods among the Slavs. Unlike the god of the prince and the warriors of Perun, Veles is the deity of plowmen, cattle breeders, and merchants. His temple stood in Kyiv, below, on Podol near the trading piers of Pochaina. Patron of storytellers and poetry. His name was also sworn at the conclusion of contracts.
Svarog God of the sky and heavenly fire. There is a version that he was the supreme god of one of the tribal unions. God-smith, taught people to melt metals. The Ipatiev Chronicle claims that Svarog was the father of Dazhdbog.
Genus- the Slavic god, the creator of all living and existing. The patron of family and destiny. Mentioned with Rozhanitsy, spirits that determine the fate of a child at birth.
Lada- the goddess of youth, spring, beauty and love. The demand was laid to her in the form of a white rooster. According to some versions, she was the wife of Svarog, or his daughter.
temple
If communication with spirits and guardians among the Slavs took place daily at the household level, then the appeal to the gods required a special place. They became temples, pagan sanctuaries of the Russians. Since they were wooden, they have not survived to our time. Reconstructions of temples found by archaeologists are round platforms bounded by a moat and rampart. In the center is the idol of the deity to whom the temple is dedicated. Sometimes there are several idols of "younger" gods around him. The territory inside the temple was covered with clay, sand or stones. Numerous traces of fire and remains of coal indicate the burning of ritual fires. Finds of animal bones (and sometimes human skulls) indicate that sacrifices were made here or, as the ancestors said, they laid trebs.
Slavic priests - Magi - served in temples. They conveyed to the common people the will of the gods, were prophets, keepers of secret knowledge.
Rites of pre-Christian Russia
Pagan rites accompanied the Russian from birth to feast (funeral rite, feast in honor of the deceased).
V. M. Vasnetsov. Trizna according to Oleg. 1899
Many rituals of the ancient Russians have survived to this day. Shrovetide, Christmas mummers, fortune-telling, the night of Ivan Kupala, the offering of food to the graves of dead ancestors - all this came to us from the ancients.
In 988, the prince. The idols of the old gods were chopped up and burned, Perun was thrown into the Dnieper. From that moment on, paganism retreats before Christianity. It was a long and often bloody process. Until the 12th century, uprisings of the Magi and pagans broke out. Moreover, in 1534 Metropolitan Macarius wrote to Ivan the Terrible:
“In many Russian places, nasty idol prayer places were preserved, and until the reign of Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, they worship all creatures like a god and honor and sacrifice blood to demons - oxen and sheep and all cattle and poultry”
Vasily Ivanovich is the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III, father of Ivan the Terrible. He ruled from 1505 to 1533. Pagan holidays and rituals gradually merged into Christianity. There was a long period of dual faith, when official Christians in everyday life continued to make requests for household spirits and guardians. And even now, its echoes are heard in our lives, when a cat is the first to be let into a new home, they sit down “on the path”, leave food on the graves, commemorating the dead.
Literature:
- Rybakov B.A. Paganism of Ancient Russia. M., 1988
- Anichkov E. V. Paganism and ancient Russia. - St. Petersburg: Printing house of M. M. Stasyulevich, 1914.
